Strawberries
by blue-eyed-cow
Summary: Maximum Ride One-Shot. What would have happened that day if the Erasers had never found the Flock? What if everything had gone the way it was supposed to? What if they had gone strawberry picking after all? Max's POV.


**A/N: Hello, everyone! Welcome to "Strawberries"! This is a short One-Shot I came up with while picking raspberries today, right after re-reading the first few chapters of The Angel Experiment. This story takes place at the beginning of the first book when Angel takes the Flock strawberry picking. This is what I think would happen if Erasers hadn't found them that day. In the beginning I use a few direct quotes from the book, then it goes past the point when Erasers are supposed to attack and continues from there.**

** So, I hope you all like it!**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.**

~Strawberries~

What a peaceful day.

Seriously, it was days like this that just made life worth living. Even if life included things like living in constant fear of being discovered, having super strength, vision, hearing, and healing, reading minds, imitating voices, being blind, and having wings. The sky was as blue as can be, with not a cloud in sight. The weather was perfect: the coldness of winter and early spring was fading away into May weather. Birds chirped from far above us, butterflies danced from flower to flower, and red, wild strawberry patches stretched as far as the eye could see.

Nothing could ruin a day like this.

Gazzy and Nudge had ran ahead, baskets in hand, ready to jump into the wild strawberry patches to begin picking. I was holding Angel's hand, strolling at a more reasonable pace behind them. Angel was really excited about picking the newly ripened berries today. Her blond, curly locks were lightly bouncing on her shoulders as she walked with a bounce to her step, beaming to no one in particular. Fang and Iggy brought up the rear, walking behind us with their hands in their pockets. As usual, Fang wasn't really displaying any visible emotion on his face. Surprise, surprise. Iggy looked sort of bored with the whole thing. He knew his way well enough around here that he didn't have to hold onto Fang's belt-loop or anything like that. After all, we have been living in the E-shaped house for four years now.

Angel looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes. "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes."

"Yeah, that'll be the day, when Max makes a cake. I'll make it, Angel." I heard Iggy say from behind me, raw amusement etched into his bored voice.

I spun around, suddenly angry. "Oh, thank you! Okay, I'm not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt, and don't you forget it!" I crossed my arms over my chest triumphantly. Ok, so my cooking sucked. But I was still the meanest fighter here!

Iggy began to laugh, holding up his hands in denial and shaking his head. Nudge had stopped running ahead and had a dark hand over her mouth, trying to conceal her laughter. Even Fang had a smug grin on his face. And then I saw the Gasman.

"Was that _you?"_ I asked Gazzy incredulously.

He gave me an evil grin and shrugged. The Gasman had this weird ability to mimic sounds and voices. Even though he often used it to start trouble or pull pranks, it still added entertainment to our not-so-normal lives.

Angel was laughing happily, eyes closed. I let go of my anger when I saw her laughing happily. If she was happy, I couldn't stay mad. She was just so darn cute!

_Thanks, Max. I'm glad you aren't mad at him. I thought it was really funny,_ I heard Angel's six-year-old voice enter my head with a giggle.

I showed her a smile and thought; _Of course I'm not mad. It was pretty funny._

Receiving my thought, she smiled back at me. Then the six of us continued on our way, chatting idly.

Up ahead, Gazzy and Nudge had reached the wild strawberry patch. They had already lunged themselves into it, picking the red berries and filling up their baskets. Nudge was chatting up a storm, and the Gasman was attempting to pick strawberries while covering his ears, which wasn't working out too well. Then, probably to get her to back off, Gazzy let loose his signature scent, and Nudge ran away to another patch of berries, coughing and coving her nose. The Gasman looked pretty pleased with himself.

Then the rest of us arrived, ready to face the berries. Angel immediately got down on her knees and began picking; not noticing her white, lacey dress was getting stained with red. Deciding I would worry about stain-removal later, I plopped down next to her and picked the small fruits, sharing a basket with my baby. She occasionally popped one of the berries into her small mouth, beaming as she did so. Strawberries were her favorite fruit.

Fang led Iggy over to where the berries grew, and Fang slowly ran Iggy's long, pale hand over the cone-shaped fruits to let him know where they were. Once he knew, the two got to work, silently collecting them into the baskets.

"I can't wait to have some strawberry shortcake!" Angel exclaimed, not taking her eyes off of the berries. "It's gunna taste so good!"

"I _totally_ know what you mean!" Nudge had joined us, and was now bouncing up and down. "I love strawberry shortcake! It's, like, so good! But we need whip-cream to go with it. It won't taste good without whip-cream. Max, do we have any of that? I hope we do, because-"

"Nudge, my ears are bleeding! Cut it out!" I heard Iggy exclaim in an aggravated tone. He was glaring in Nudge's general direction, his pale blue eyes narrowed.

Nudge huffed. "Well sor-_ry!"_ she exclaimed, whipping her black, messy hair over her shoulder.

I laughed. "I'll have to get some whip-cream for you, Nudge."

She smiled. "Awesome! Thanks, Max! Because, really, what's shortcake without whip-cream? I remember this one time-"

But she was cut off by another warning growl from Iggy, so she quickly shut up and got back to picking.

_Thank god, too,_ I thought. _If she kept talking, when I go to buy the whip-cream I would have to also buy a muzzle._

I heard Angel giggle from my left, too soft for anyone else to hear. I pulled her in close to me and gave her a light kiss on top of her head. Man, I just loved this kid.

"Max! My basket's already full!" I heard the Gasman complain loudly.

I lifted up my head and saw him a few patches down, holding up a full basket and looking annoyed. I smiled to myself. That kid always wanted to be so helpful, so he always seemed to go over the top with everything he did, (and I'm sorry to say that includes blowing things up with Iggy).

"Why don't you go help Nudge fill her basket up?" I suggested, giving him a half-smile. Being the oldest, I was supposed to encourage the younger kids to help each other and whatnot. Just another responsibility of mine that you can add to the list.

He nodded enthusiastically, and Nudge yelled back to him, "As long as you don't fart again! That was gross!"

He gave her a mischievous grin as he trotted over to her. "I can't promise anything." With that, the two began to hunt for more berries.

It went on like that for a while. Fang and Iggy had come to join us, and eventually we were all picking from the same patch. Red juice had splattered onto the Gasman's neon-green shirt, making it look like Christmas colors. Nudge had begun to talk about how awesome-tasting these were, and blah, blah, blah. Angel was giggling, probably very happy all her older siblings were enjoying themselves. Iggy was smiling, plucking the fruit off the vines and into the basket, and occasionally saying sarcastic things in response to whatever Nudge had said.

Fang was still showing no emotion as his fingers danced lightly over the plants, but I saw some red juice dribble slowly down his lip. That was strange. Hadn't he told me he didn't like strawberries earlier today? If so, then why was he snacking on them, and being so messy about it, too? I concealed laughter as I tried not to think about how vampire-like he looked. If I told him, he would obviously be embarrassed.

So I would just tell everyone else instead.

I nudged Angel lightly with my elbow. She looked at me, confused, and I thought: _L__ook at Fang's chin._

She quickly shot a glance to the fourteen-year-old dressed in black, and when she saw that he had strawberry juice running down his chin, her small hand shot up to cover her mouth as she tried not to laugh.

_Pass it onto the others, _I thought, evilly. _I want them to see this._

A glint of mischief was visible in my baby's eyes as she nodded quickly and suddenly looked as if she was concentrating hard.

As I watched, Gazzy suddenly stopped helping Nudge and looked like he was listening to something. Then his eyes darted to Fang, who was still picking strawberries, unaware of the situation unfolding around him. Like Angel, the Gasman suddenly cupped his hands over his mouth and began to laugh hysterically into them at the sight of Fang's messy, strawberry-eating habits.

Then I looked towards Iggy. His expert fingers suddenly stopped picking as he sat frozen, listening to Angel's words in his head. Then I saw the corners of his mouth twitch, and I knew he probably wished he could see how stupid Fang looked just then.

Next was Nudge. She froze halfway through placing a berry into the basket. Then her face broke into a huge smile as she looked in Fang's direction. And, before she could stop herself, she bust out laughing. Which caused a chain reaction. Gazzy could no longer conceal his laughter as a burst of it erupted from the eight-year-old. Angel's giggles grew louder until she was full out laughing, clutching my shirt for support. Iggy snickered, and even I chuckled.

Fang, clearly confused at this point, raised his head to us. "Did I miss something?"

Nudge was the one to answer. "You… haha! You, you… you've got a little…" she rubbed her chin with her hand, laughing hysterically. "A little something! Right here!" She couldn't go on as she laughed even harder.

Fang's eyes widened as he immediacy brought the sleeve of his sweatshirt up to his lips and whipped off the juice. "Oh, I, um…"

Could it be? Could Mr. Rock's face be turning red? Now I was laughing, pointing at him. "I guess you like strawberries after all, huh, Fang?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, but I could detect amusement in his voice as he spoke. "Oh, shut up."

The day somehow flew by after that, and we found ourselves out there until sunset. We didn't really get hungry since we snacked on all those berries, and after our baskets had filled up we just stayed outside to goof around. It was so nice out, anyways, so what was the harm? We ran around, yelling and laughing until our voices were hoarse and we were all gasping for breath.

I was doubled over, hands on my knees, laughing hard. Then I stood up slowly, examining my flock. "Ok, who says we take a quick flight before we head in for the day?" I proposed strongly, grinning.

"Sounds good to me!" The Gasman exclaimed happily.

"Ouuu, sounds fun!" Nudge squeaked, regaining her breath.

"Let's," was all Angel said, smiling up at me.

"Sure, why not?" Iggy asked with a shrug of his shoulders, trying to conceal a smile.

Mr. Rock, (or should I say, Mr. Messy?) just smiled at me, which was a good as a 'yes' as I'll ever get from him. So, leaving the baskets on the ground, I took a running start across the field. When I built enough speed, I unfolded my wings and opened them, flapping hard until my feet gracefully lifted off the ground.

And I was flying.

Behind me I could here more wing-beats, signifying the rest of my flock had followed me. Fang flew beside me, a few feet beneath me as we slowly gained altitude. His black wings copied my beige, white, and brown ones perfectly, being sure to let our feathers touch on every downbeat.

Man, if this isn't the best feeling ever, I don't know what is. Flying. It's amazing. An indescribable feeling of joy and freedom. I loved it so much.

Flying.

"Yahooo!" Gazzy exclaimed from below me, throwing his arms above his head as his white wings beat effortlessly. Angel was doing loopty-loops on my other side; small white wings fluttering like an angel's. Nudge was bouncing along behind me, not talking for once. Instead, a feeling of true bliss was shown upon her young face as she stretched her arms out. Her fawn-colored wings glinted in the bright colors of the sunset. Iggy was trailing along behind us, using his expert hearing to decide exactly where we all were. His cream-colored wings with black tips were the biggest of all of ours, beating up and down as he flew.

My flock. Flying. Without a care in the world. I breathed in deeply, letting the cool air ventilate threw my lungs, then breathed it out again. Everything was perfect. I never wanted any of this to change. I wished for it to stay this way forever.

And I just might have my wish.

"Woohooooooo!" was what escaped from my mouth as I curled in my wings for a dive.

It was days like this that just made life worth living.

**A/N: The End! **

** Please review! I love to hear what you guys think! It only takes a few seconds to review, and it makes my whole day better when you do!**

** If you like my writing style, I have written two other Maximum Ride fics, but they are both about Iggy, who is my favorite character. So, if you like Iggy, please feel free to check those out, too!**

** Thanks so much for reading!**

** ~blue-eyed-cow**


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